With the United States' entry into World War II in December 1941, the war did not immediately improve for the Allies. In the Pacific, the Japanese dealt severe blows to the United States and Great Britain, capturing the Philippines, Malaya, and Indonesia, and threatening Britain's crown jewel, India. In mid-1941, Germany captured the Balkans and Greece, and German armies in Africa threatened Egypt and Britain's short route to India, the Suez Canal. The importance of India to British strategic thinking can not be overemphasized.

France had fallen to Germany in 1940 and was partially occupied. Making every effort to maintain its North African and Eastern Mediterranean possessions, the unoccupied portion (the Vichy Government) tried to remain neutral. Out of necessity, they collaborated with Germany.

Germany invaded the Soviet Union in 1941, and by 1942 Russia was reeling as German armies sliced deep into the country. The United States and Great Britain sent military supplies to Russia, but in addition the Soviets wanted a second front in Europe to reduce the tremendous pressure the German forces applied. Without that second front, the Soviets believed they would bleed to death.

Planning Considerations
Where to go was another problem. The United States wanted a beachhead in France, but Dieppe (February 1942) had shown the British what would happen without proper preparation (troops, transport, and equipment). The British preferred a North African landing to protect Egypt, the Suez, and Persia, Britain's source of oil. If the Mediterranean could be made safe, the route to the Middle and Far East was much shorter than going around South Africa. At the end of July 1942, the United States agreed to a landing in French North Africa.

The French in North Africa
The attitude of the French was considered a problem. Left with very little national pride after the defeat of 1940, Vichy France rekindled much of their traditional British antipathy after the latter attacked and immobilized part of their remaining fleet at Dakar and Oran. The French perceived the British attacks as cowardly acts against a defeated ally, but the British saw the strikes as necessary to ensure that French naval vessels would not fall into German hands.

Trying to maintain some semblance of pride after the surrender to Germany, the French armed forces rallied around the military leader of the Vichy Government and hero of World War I Verdun, Marshall Petain. The senior officers' allegiance was to Petain himself, not to the civilian government. This feeling was strongest in North Africa, where military men, not civilians, ran the colonial governments. The French Navy also rallied around Petain; the senior French naval officer, and Petain's deputy, was Admiral Darlan.

The United States conducted an active, but secret, diplomatic effort to recruit senior French naval and military personnel to join the North African landing against Germany. To overcome anti-British sentiment, the attacking forces had to be almost entirely American. The Americans hoped the French garrisons would view the North African landings as a liberation, not an invasion. This eventually happened, but three days of hard fighting ensued before the French ceased opposing the Americans. Admiral Darlan agreed to the cease-fire without consulting Petain.

Selection of Objectives
Harbors were of primary importance to a landing in North Africa. The three best were Casablanca, Oran, and Algiers. Casablanca was on the Atlantic coast; Oran and Algiers were in the Mediterranean; and Algiers was 1200 miles from Casablanca. The Americans preferred a Mediterranean landing, as it would put them closer to Tunisia and the German forces. But North African roads and railroads were few and primitive: If the French forces in North Africa chose to side with Germany, supply lines would be cut off.

The port question was overriding. Casablanca, Oran and Algiers were selected as landing points. Casablanca was decided upon near the end of September.

Battleship Massachusetts
Commissioned on May 12, 1942, the U.S.S. Massachusetts still required the installation of sensitive military electronics (radar), loading of stores, spare parts, and the like. The crew and the ship were new. The crew had to learn their way around and become proficient in both operating the ship and using her as a weapon. Nearly eight hundred of her builders joined the Navy to serve on the Massachusetts, but building skills are different from operating and fighting skills.

The third week in October, the Massachusetts and her covering destroyers sortied from Casco Bay to join the invasion task force and Battleships New York and Texas. On November 8, 1942, the Massachusetts was flagship of the Covering Group off Casablanca, (Center Group landings at Fedhala). Battleship Texas provided support fire for the landings at Mehedia (Port Lyautey) to the north, while New York provided support fire for the landings at Safi in the south. These three sites centered on Casablanca on the Atlantic coast. Simultaneous landings were taking place around Oran and Algiers on the Mediterranean coast.

At Casablanca, the immediate answer to the question of French resistance was answered just before seven o'clock, when the French fired on American landing craft. By 0704, under fire from the shore battery at El Hank and Battleship Jean Bart, the Massachusetts fired the first American 16-inch gun salvos of World War II in anger. In sixteen minutes she fired nine main battery salvos, scoring five hits. Heavily damaged, the Jean Bart was silenced. Four nearby freighters, a destroyer, and a floating dry-dock were also sunk in the harbor during this exchange.

Battleship Massachusetts also returned fire on Battery El Hank. French submarines, destroyers, and a light cruiser sortied from Casablanca to engage the American forces. Loaded exclusively with armor-piercing main battery ammunition, she was not well fitted to engage shore batteries and smaller ships. However, between 1000 and 1030, the Massachusetts sank Destroyer Boulonnais and shared the sinking of Destroyer Fougueux. The Massachusetts was hit once forward by Battery El Hank and dodged four very well-aimed torpedoes. The Massachusetts expended 786 rounds of sixteen-inch ammunition during the Battle of Casablanca, about 60 percent of her magazines.

The French fought gallantly and well. They sustained very substantial losses to their Casablanca forces, four destroyers and eight submarines sunk, with four other ships disabled.

Epilogue
Germany occupied the remainder of France on November 10. The French Fleet at Toulon was scuttled on Admiral Darlan's orders on November 28. Admiral Darlan was assassinated on December 24, 1942. Marshall Petain was arrested at the end of the War as a Nazi collaborator. The Jean Bart finally went into service in 1952 and served until 1968. From 1960 until 1968, she was the world's only active modern battleship.

~BY CHIEF PRESERVATION ENGINEER CDR STRAFFORD MORSS, USNR (RET.)